Autoimmunity, Brain & Beyond

Lymphatic Research Foundation Launches Tissue Bank at the Feinstein

The Lymphatic Research Foundation has launched the National Lymphatic Disease and Lymphedema Patient Registry and Tissue Bank in collaboration with Dr. Peter K. Gregersen and his colleagues at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. This registry will enable scientists and clinicians to better understand the course of lymphedema and other lymphatic diseases. Collecting medical data and identifying genetic fingerprints of the condition is critical in understanding the nature and the progression of these conditions. The Patient Registry has already begun and the Tissue Bank (Biorepository) will begin early next year. Robert Lundsten and the Feinstein Institute's Biomedical Informatics Group created and rolled out the LRF registry. For more information contact the Lymphatic Research Foundation at 516-625-9675.

Feinstein scientist Todd Lencz, PhD, gets federal GO award to study schizophrenia

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a “Grand Opportunity” (GO) grant to a team of researchers – led by Todd Lencz, PhD, at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and Zucker Hillside Hospital, and Ariel Darvasi, PhD, of Hebrew University – to use cutting-edge technologies to help unravel the genetic basis of schizophrenia. More than two million dollars was awarded to the team, which also includes Anil Malhotra, MD, and Peter Gregersen, MD, of the Feinstein Institute and David Goldman, MD, of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, to conduct this research.

    As described by the NIH, the GO grant program was designed to support “high impact ideas” that can “accelerate critical breakthroughs” in our understanding of human disease. The program was made possible by an infusion of money to the NIH under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (also known as the “economic stimulus package”), representing “the single largest boost to biomedical research in history,” according to President Barack Obama. In announcing the awards, President Obama singled out genetic research as “one of the most exciting areas of research to move forward as a result of this investment.” Eventually, it is hoped that this research may be used to more accurately predict, treat, and prevent serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

    It has long been known that schizophrenia – a complex brain disease marked by hallucinations and delusions – tends to run in families and therefore has a genetic component to its cause. However, scientists have struggled to conclusively identify the genes that contribute to risk for this disease. “Current evidence suggests that many genes are likely to be involved in schizophrenia, which theoretically should provide a large target for scientists,” Dr. Lencz said. “Unfortunately, these genes are individually either very rare or very weak in effect, making them very elusive to traditional forms of genetic analysis.”

    The newly funded GO grant builds on prior gene-hunting efforts with several distinctive features. Most notably, the sample consists entirely of individuals (patients and controls) of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, recruited in Israel by Dr. Darvasi, who explains “The unique demographic history of the Jewish Ashkenazi population results in a more homogeneous genetic background compared to the general population. This should allow disease-related genetic signals to stand out more clearly in our analyses.” Additionally, this study will utilize the most advanced genetic technologies, which will permit examination of many more pieces of the genetic code than prior generations of research.

New Science Series at the Feinstein

The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research began a new day-long series to educate researchers and clinicians on specific diseases. The first symposium of the Centricity Series was on sepsis, a potentially lethal immune response to infection, and last month the second meeting on cancer packed the auditorium at the Manhasset research institute. The courses are now CME-accredited and will be available online at www.centricityseries.edu.

 

“Conquering Cancer: Transforming Care” provided a broad array of cancer research – from genetic regulation and therapeutic correction of immune responses in cancer to novel therapeutic targets to block glioblastoma invasion. The program was organized by Marc Symons, PhD, Investigator at the Center for Oncology and Cell Biology at the Feinstein Institute. About 100 scientists and clinicians from the North Shore-LIJ Health System spent the day learning about the latest advances in the field. They also got a taste of the research history of cancer research.

 

“These meetings are designed to educate people on diseases that we study here at the Feinstein,” said Feinstein chief executive Kevin J. Tracey, MD. The Centricity Series is one way of educating scientists about individual fields. The Feinstein is also home to the Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine.

“The idea is to have a forum for promoting interaction between clinicians and basic scientists,” said Marc Symons, PhD, organizer of the program on cancer. “It is a way to foster interest in research throughout the health system.”

 

The keynote speaker was George Prendergast, PhD, a tumor biologist and President/CEO of the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, Wynnewood PA. He also is co-director of the Cell Biology and Signaling Program at the Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University. He talked about his studies on how tumors circumvent the immune system, an important feature in tumor formation and progression. Based on his work in the laboratory, Dr. Prendergast and his colleagues helped design a molecule that blocks an enzyme that tumor cells use to take over the immune system. Based on these discoveries, a safety study (Phase I) human trial of the inhibitor recently began. The hope is that it will shut off the tumor’s ability to hijack the human immune system.

 

Bettie Steinberg, PhD, also shared her basic science research on Recurrent Respiratory Papillomatosis that led to a large grant at the Feinstein Institute to study the effects of the popular COX-2 inhibitor Celebrex to reduce the occurrence of these papillomas. Those in attendance also heard about bone marrow failure syndromes. There were three talks on brain tumors. Dr. Symons and colleagues at the Institute have been studying how glioblastoma and medulloblastoma cells migrate, which could ultimately lead to the development of new therapeutics to stop this malignant process. Maria Ruggieri, PhD, explained how glioblastoma tumors invade and become resistant to radiation and proposed new ways to sensitize these tumors to this treatment.

 

Dr. Rothstein talked about his work with faim, a highly evolutionarily conserved and widely-distributed gene originally cloned from stimulated, normal B lymphocytes. Dr. Rothstein is an expert on B cell biology. The gene makes a protein that is anti-apoptotic, signal-enhancing, and differentiation-promoting. Dr. Rothstein and is colleagues are testing whether faim is a candidate gene that may contribute to the survival and growth of lymphoid malignancies directly through its anti-apoptotic effect, or indirectly by amplifying positive signals emanating from CD40.

 

It clearly was a mix of basic science and clinical concerns. Daniel Budman, MD, talked about his work searching for synergy between different anti-tumor medicines.

 

Of course, the day on Conquering Cancer would not have been complete without a talk on Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, one of the largest cancer research projects underway at the Feinstein Institute. The talk provided people with an understanding of B cell biology and intriguing ways to target CLL.

Video’s of all the presentations of the day-long program will soon be available to watch at  www.centricityseries.com. For more information on the series contact Kevin Heck at 516-562-1137.

New BioGene Bank Program at the Feinstein

Collecting genetic information from a wide range of people is the key to new discoveries about the way the human body works in health and in disease. Researchers in the Center for Genomics and Human Genetics at the Feinstein Insstitute created The BioGene Bank Research Project to speed up genetic discoveries. The program began last spring and a few months into raising awareness for the program a team of summer interns fanned out with a survey to better understand people’s attitudes about genetic research. The BioGene Bank Research Project involves collecting blood samples for DNA and medical record data on patients coming into the North Shore-LIJ Health System. The samples are labeled and stored for research and the medical information is coded so that no one can have access to personal information that is tied to the DNA.

 

Almost 550 people (ages 18 to 80) filled out the survey, which was given in waiting rooms throughout the hospitals in the system. Eight-two percent of those asked said they were in favor of genetic research. Only one person was against it. The others were unsure. When it became more personal – would you be in favor of using your own DNA for research – 70 percent said that they were in favor of having their own DNA used to advance science. Were these people then willing to become part of the BioGene Bank? Forty-four percent said yes; 41 percent were not sure and 15 percent said no. The biggest concern was keeping the information private. About 75 percent of people said they wanted to keep their information private. At present, the BioGene Bank staff talks to patients about to be admitted for elective surgery and explain the program. People have to sign a consent form, which means that they accept being in the program and sharing a tube of blood for the study. There is another way to enroll people into the study that is called an opt-out. Instead of signing a consent form that says a person opts into a study, they would sign a form only if they wanted to opt out of the study. Forty-five percent of those surveyed said they would be happy with an opt-out policy.

 

The survey was carried out by Jennifer Witthuhn, a returning sophomore at Yale and Nicole Noronha, a returning sophomore at Brown who plans to become a doctor. “We were excited,” said Jennifer. “We were not expecting to get so many people in a two-week period.”

Feinstein Institute's Ona Bloom, PhD, was a summer fellow at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole

Here is a blog entry from the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole. Ona Bloom is studying lampreys and spent part of her summer doing work at the research institute in Woods Hole, Ma. To go to MBL blog site: http://blog.mbl.edu/?p=471

As far as scary-looking fish go, the adult sea lamprey is right up there with the sharks. It’s about 3 feet long, with concentric rings of teeth inside a jawless, suction-cup mouth. After trapping its prey by sucking, the lamprey scrapes off the skin using a tooth at the end of its tongue, and then sucks out the blood. Since the lamprey has good taste in fish – preferring trout, salmon, bass –it’s the target of a federal lampricide program in the Great Lakes region, where it has nearly devoured some of these stocks.

The toothy mouth of the sea lamprey. Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

But no creature is all bad. “The lamprey has a really beautiful spinal cord,” says Ona Bloom, an MBL Research Fellow from The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. Together with Jennifer Morgan (Univ. of Texas at Austin) and David Parker (Univ. of Cambridge), who are recipients of an MBL sponsored Albert and Ellen Grass Faculty Research Grant, Bloom and her colleagues are studying the lamprey’s remarkable ability to recover from severe spinal cord injury. “We have been talking for years about collaborating on these studies,” says Bloom. “ The MBL gives us a wonderful opportunity to do that.”

Feinstein Institute Geneticist Peter K. Gregersen talks to Illumina about the future of genetic testing

Peter K. Gregerson, MD, is a world leader in finding risk genes for autoimmune disease, which are very common in the population. To hear what he told a panel last week see link below http://www.xconomy.com/san-diego/2008/11/07/illumina-shows-its-stuff-to-wall-street-stock-still-slides/

Musical Pitch Recognition in Autistic Spectrum Disorders

• Peter K. Gregersen, MD, head of the Robert S. Boas Center for Genomics and Human Genetics at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research is conducting a research study on musical pitch (or sound) perception in people with autistic spectrum disorders and their family members.  Participation is conducted by mail, the Internet, and over the telephone. You do not need to have any prior musical training to participate in this study.

• To learn about the study visit http://www.autismpitchstudy.com.

• The investigators also have an on-going genetic study of absolute pitch. If you have absolute pitch, participation in the study is simple and is also conducted by mail and over the telephone. This is the largest nationwide study of absolute pitch. If you are interested in more information about these research studies, please email Elena Kowalsky at elenak@nshs.edu or call their toll free number at 1-888-897-3098.

DR. BETTY DIAMOND WINS EVELYN V. HESS AWARD FOR LUPUS WORK

      Congratulations to Betty Diamond, M.D., head of the Feinstein Institute's Autoimmune Disease, for receiving the 2008 Evelyn V. Hess Research Award, given annually by the Lupus Foundation of America, Inc. (LFA). The recipient is selected through a peer review process, and recognizes a lifetime of achievement in lupus research.

Dr. Diamond has spent her entire career studying lupus and taking care of patients. Her work has helped unravel the mysteries of this autoimmune disorder, bringing clarity to the condition and its penchant for attacking multiple body organs.  Because lupus affects far more women than men, she is now looking at the role estrogens may play in the disease process. She is also mining the lupus autoantibodies in the brain to figure out why there are so many cognitive and mood changes in lupus patients. 

Her research efforts have been recognized by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), the Arthritis Foundation, and the National Association of M.D./Ph.D. programs. In 2006, she was elected to the Institute of Medicine, and also serves on the Scientific Council of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) and the Board of Directors of the American College of Rheumatology. When Dr. Diamond arrived at the Feinstein, after tenures at Columbia and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, she set to work on developing programs to educate and treat minority populations with lupus.  Dr. Diamond opened rheumatology clinics in four underserved areas in the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Nassau.

If you have ever heard Dr. Diamond explain her science, you will know that she is an outstanding and compassionate orator. She brings the science to the masses and people come away learning not just about lupus but about autoimmune diseases in general.

The Lupus Foundation of America  established Hess award in 2005 to honor Evelyn V. Hess, M.D., M.A.C.P., M.A.C.R., for her outstanding contributions to lupus research over the course of her long and distinguished career. Dr. Diamond will receive her award on October 25th in San Francisco during a reception in her honor hosted by the LFA National Board of Directors. Lupus is an autoimmune disease and it's diseas course is unpredictable and potentially fatal. To date, there are no good  treatments to stall the disease process. Patients with lupus are at risk for  heart attacks, strokes, seizures, or sudden organ failure. The LFA estimates that more than 1.5 million Americans have some form of lupus.

The Lupus Foundation of America is the nation's foremost nonprofit voluntary health organization dedicated to finding the causes of and cure for lupus, and providing support, services, and hope to all people affected by lupus. The LFA and its nationwide network of nearly 300 local chapters, branches and support groups conduct programs of research, education, and advocacy.

For more information on lupus, visit the LFA website www.lupus.org or call toll-free 1-888-38-LUPUS to request a free brochure. For more information on lupus studies at the Feinstein call Dr. Cynthia Aranow or Dr. Meggan Mackay at 516-562-FIMR. The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research is located in Manhasset and offers more than a dozen clinical and research trials.

WALK FOR LUPUS

The Autoimmune Disease Center at the Feinstein is participating in the Walk Along for Lupus 2008 to raise money for Lupus Alliance of America Inc Long Island-Queens Affiliate. As most of you know, we are committed to patient care and research in lupus. The Lupus Alliance is a nation-wide organization committed to the support of lupus patients in many ways, including patient education, support groups and research support. We have worked closely with the Alliance since coming to the Feinstein last year and are excited to join them for the first time in the Lupus Walk.

We hope you will consider joining us on the walk and/or making a donation to support us. You can make a donation by visiting our Firstgiving page: http://www.firstgiving.com/megganmackay.The name of our team is the Butterfly Brigade and we welcome any support you can give us! You can donate online with a credit card. All donations are secure and sent directly to Lupus Alliance of America Inc Long Island-Queens Affiliate. If you would like to join our team, please visit the website at "http://www.firstgiving.com/lupusliqueens" Yyou do not have to pledge money to join the team. Follow the prompts to complete the registration. OR you can simply show up at Eisenhour Park, Field #6 on Sunday 10/19/2008 between 8:30 and 10:00 AM. The walk starts at 10 am. Thanks. Scientists at the Feinstein Institute

KNOWING YOUR RISK FOR BREAST CANCER

On October 1^st, an inspirational documentary appeared on PBS, featuring Joanna Rudnick and her struggle to deal with a BRCA mutation that has swept through her family.  If you missed the documentary, visit the web site to learn about the latest issues n genetic testing to uncover risk genes. http://inthefamily.kartemquin.com/.